By the time Xu Zihuang returned to the dormitory, it was already deep into the night.
After washing up in the bathroom, he sat cross-legged on the bed and began cultivating.
With his current level of spiritual power, multitasking was an easy feat for him. While cultivating, he carefully recalled his earlier conversation with Jing Hongchen.
Jing Hongchen held a very special position in the Sun Moon Empire. He might not be the strongest soul mentor in the empire, but he was undoubtedly the one with the most authority and influence. After all, he controlled both Mingde Hall and the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy.
The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy was the equivalent of Shrek Academy on the original Douluo Continent side. No one knew how many talents the academy had produced for the Sun Moon Empire over the years.
At least ninety percent of the currently famous high-level soul mentors had graduated from the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy.
Moreover, because of the academy's relaxed teaching environment, even soul masters with average talent could enroll and study there. Those who failed to enter Mingde Hall often chose to join the soul mentor legions in the army.
Unlike ordinary soldiers, the treatment of soul mentor legions had always been extremely good.
It could be said that Jing Hongchen, who held the title of Duke, was highly respected among the military, the nobility, and even the imperial family.
Even his imperial brother, Xu Tianran, treated Jing Hongchen with utmost respect.
Because no matter which prince ascended to the throne, they would all need the support of Jing Hongchen, the Master of Mingde Hall.
Naturally, Xu Zihuang also hoped to win Jing Hongchen over. This would undoubtedly be greatly beneficial to his plans. Seizing the throne and unifying the continent would become much easier.
But for now, he could not reveal his true identity to Jing Hongchen—it was far too dangerous.
Anyone who could climb to such a position was a shrewd and cunning individual.
An immature youth like him—what did he have to offer that could make Jing Hongchen take such an enormous risk to stand on his side?
Still, it wasn't as if he had no leads at all. Jing Hongchen's granddaughter, Meng Hongchen, was an excellent entry point.
When necessary, he was willing to sacrifice anything he could. He had long since steeled this resolve. If it could bring him benefits tempting enough, even if it meant immediately marrying Meng Hongchen, he would not hesitate for a second.
His chaotic thoughts gradually settled, and Xu Zihuang fully immersed himself in cultivation.
The night passed quietly.
As the morning sun rose outside the balcony, Xu Zihuang faced the sunrise and exhaled deeply. A faint white mist emerged from his mouth, gradually taking shape before being inhaled again with his breath. Instantly, the entire room was filled with a refreshing fragrance and a cool, crisp aura.
The shed skin left behind by the million-year Heaven Dream Ice Silkworm clung tightly to the skin on his chest. This was, after all, the essence condensed from a million years of the Heaven Dream Ice Silkworm's cultivation.
Even just adhering to his skin, it granted immunity to water and fire and repelled dust.
The air he breathed was filtered through this layer of shed skin—completely pure and untainted. Precisely because of this filtration, the air he inhaled and exhaled carried an extra touch of coldness.
That coldness was not piercing; instead, it made him feel refreshingly cool.
Each dormitory building at the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy had its own dedicated cafeteria. The higher the grade, the better the food.
The sixth-grade dormitory building where Xu Zihuang and the others lived undoubtedly had the best food on campus, second only to Mingde Hall itself.
The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy was extremely wealthy—room and board were completely free. Students only needed to pay a certain amount of tuition each year.
However, although the provided food was nutritious and rich, it was made from ordinary ingredients. If one wanted to eat delicacies made from the essence parts of various soul beasts or heavenly treasures, they had to pay out of their own pocket.
The cafeteria resembled a grand, spacious hall. The various windows on the first floor offered free food, while the special counters on the second floor sold dishes that were genuinely beneficial to soul masters.
Xu Zihuang arrived at the cafeteria and headed up the wide staircase toward the second floor.
From the sale of that 30,000-year Diamond Mammoth right arm bone to the Xuanming Sect behind Xu Sanshi, plus his usual savings, he still had over eight million gold soul coins in hand.
There was naturally no need to skimp on food. In any case, he never lacked money.
He Caitou was walking beside him. Their dorm rooms were adjacent, so they had come together early in the morning.
As the two walked up the center of the staircase, the corner of their eyes suddenly caught sight of Fan Yu entering through the cafeteria entrance.
Fan Yu had been separately arranged by Jing Hongchen yesterday and stayed elsewhere. The reason he came to the sixth-grade dormitory cafeteria was clearly to find Xu Zihuang and He Caitou.
There weren't many sixth-grade students in the entire Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy. Fan Yu scanned the room once and immediately spotted the two, quickly walking over with a smile.
"How is it?"
A bitter look appeared on He Caitou's honest, dark face.
"The gap between Shrek Academy's soul tool department and here… is really huge."
"If the gap wasn't huge, we wouldn't have come here." Fan Yu's smile did not falter as his gaze shifted to Xu Zihuang.
"Tianhuang, I spoke with Hall Master Hongchen yesterday. Their sincerity exceeds even what I imagined. Hall Master Hongchen said he would personally have Teacher Xuan Ziwen serve as your mentor. This Teacher Xuan is no ordinary person; he's young, yet already an eighth-class soul mentor and Mingde Hall's chief researcher."
As expected, it was Xuan Ziwen.
Xu Zihuang's mind stirred slightly, but on the surface, he remained calm. "Teacher Fan Yu, actually, Hall Master Hongchen already told me all of this last night."
Fan Yu raised an eyebrow.
"Last night?"
Xu Zihuang did not conceal anything and recounted the full details of Jing Hongchen receiving him at Mingde Hall, only omitting the specific parts about Jing Hongchen trying to win him over.
"To be honest, Tianhuang, your talent is simply too outstanding. I'm not the least bit surprised that Hall Master Hongchen would lower himself to recruit you."
Fan Yu sighed with a complicated expression in his eyes.
What made him glad was that, fortunately, Yu Tianhuang came from their original Douluo Continent side. As for whether Yu Tianhuang would accept Jing Hongchen's recruitment, he wasn't particularly worried.
Someone like Yu Tianhuang, a descendant of one of the ancient soul master clans from the three great empires of the original Douluo Continent, held very deep traditional values. Moreover, could the conditions Shrek Academy offered Yu Tianhuang possibly be inferior to Jing Hongchen's promises?
Not to mention that for the past two years, Elder Mu had been personally teaching Yu Tianhuang. He believed that Elder Mu and the academy's higher-ups' judgment could not be wrong.
Fan Yu did not dwell on it further. With a wave of his hand, he led the two to the top-tier food counter on the second floor.
"Alright, let's eat first."
This breakfast was paid for by Fan Yu. The three of them spent over four hundred gold soul coins in total—quite extravagant.
Each person had three dishes, one soup, and a large bowl of crystal white corn rice. Over the past two years of carrying out the Ultimate Soldier Plan, Xu Zihuang and He Caitou had tasted all kinds of nourishing dishes. Among the four dishes, the only one that felt somewhat novel to them was a bowl of soft, melt-in-the-mouth braised meat.
Fan Yu deliberately asked about it and learned from the chef behind the counter that it was made by slow-stewing the hind leg meat of a hundred-year-old Silver Wolf.
Silver Wolf, also known as Silver Moon Wolf, was a soul beast unique to the Sun Moon Empire region. It could swallow secret silver to grow and break through. Its meat was extremely delicious, and consuming it had the wonderful effect of strengthening a soul master's physique. They were born with powerful spiritual power to control various attributes, making them quite suitable as soul rings for spiritual-attribute soul masters.
If one could find a hundred-thousand-year Silver Moon Wolf Emperor, it would probably grant Xu Zihuang several very good soul skills.
Unfortunately, no hundred-thousand-year Silver Moon Wolf Emperor had ever appeared in the Sun Moon Empire region.
After breakfast, the three parted ways. Like Xu Zihuang, Fan Yu would soon be able to enter Mingde Hall to observe and study.
The efficiency of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy was indeed very high. By the time Xu Zihuang and He Caitou returned to the dormitory, their school uniforms had already been delivered, along with a notice to gather in front of the sixth-grade teaching building on the first floor.
The school uniform, primarily silver-white, looked extremely noble on Xu Zihuang. On the left chest was a sun-over-moon pattern embroidered with silver thread—the sun above, the moon below.
In comparison, He Caitou, whose bulging muscles nearly burst the uniform at the seams, did not have the same elegant and noble air as Xu Zihuang.
In terms of size, the sixth-grade teaching building was no smaller than the first-grade building they had visited yesterday. Yet these two massive teaching buildings were used solely by a few dozen sixth-grade students.
Lin Jiayi was already waiting there, with ten teachers of varying ages standing behind him.
Xu Zihuang, He Caitou, Ye Xiaosheng, and the other ten students from Shrek Academy lined up neatly in front of Lin Jiayi.
Lin Jiayi said,
"Students from Shrek, starting today, you are officially members of our Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy. I hope that in the next two and a half years, you will treat this place as your home. To allow you to come into contact with higher-level soul tool knowledge, your study arrangements are as follows."
"The ten sixth-grade teachers behind me are all instructors with extremely high teaching ability in our academy, and each is at least a seventh-class soul mentor. Each of them leads a few sixth-grade students. You will study under these ten teachers. Once you have built a certain foundation, these teachers will assess you. Based on the assessment results, it will be determined how often you may enter Mingde Hall in the future to attend lectures or observe. The best result, of course, is direct entry into Mingde Hall to study. The worst is being allowed to observe once every ten days. Of course, you may apply for re-assessment at any time afterward. As long as you meet the standard, you can still enter Mingde Hall and become a member of it."
"Yu Tianhuang."
Lin Jiayi suddenly called out, then continued,
"Teacher Xuan."
Xu Zihuang understood and stepped forward. From behind Lin Jiayi, a young teacher with slightly cold and stern features walked up to stand beside him.
It was none other than the Xuan Ziwen that Fan Yu had mentioned.
Xuan Ziwen glanced at the fifth-class soul mentor badge on Xu Zihuang's chest and frowned. "Director Lin, since it's the Hall Master's order, I will naturally comply. But if he cannot meet my requirements, I have nothing to teach him."
The standards for judging soul mentor classes at the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy were different from elsewhere. In his view, even if Yu Tianhuang was rated as a fifth-class soul mentor at Shrek Academy, being able to reach the fourth-class level here would already be very impressive.
Lin Jiayi showed no sign of anger at Xuan Ziwen's blunt words and simply smiled faintly.
"Then Student Yu is in your hands."
He was only following Jing Hongchen's instructions. Whether Yu Tianhuang could gain Xuan Ziwen's approval was none of his concern. Although Jing Hongchen's attitude toward Yu Tianhuang was subtle, as a perceptive subordinate, he would never carelessly try to guess his superior's thoughts.
That was the greatest taboo for a subordinate.
Xuan Ziwen looked at Xu Zihuang and said coldly, "Follow me."
With that, he turned and walked into the second teaching building across from them, clearly not intending to wait for the other teachers.
Xu Zihuang said nothing and silently followed.
Only after the two figures disappeared into the entrance of the teaching building did Lin Jiayi take several trays from the staff. The trays held neatly folded slips of paper.
"For the sake of fairness, the remaining nine of you will now draw lots to decide which mentor you will follow."
The second teaching building was six stories tall, and each floor was significantly higher than those at Shrek Academy. The total height of the six floors exceeded forty meters.
Xuan Ziwen led Xu Zihuang all the way to the fifth floor, walked dozens of meters down the corridor, and stopped in front of a wide metal door.
A sign on the door read: Laboratory Three.
Xuan Ziwen took out a token from his chest of drawers and waved it in front of the silver-white metal door. A white light flashed, accompanied by a buzzing vibration, and a seam appeared in the center of the door before it slid open to both sides.
"Come in."
This laboratory was more than twice the size of the one exclusively used by Fan Yu at Shrek Academy. It was filled with all kinds of soul tools and rare metals.
Huge matte-finished experiment tables, each exceeding thirty square meters, gave off a steady and elegant feeling under the illumination of soul guidance lights, without being dazzling.
In the vast laboratory, there were only Xu Zihuang and Xuan Ziwen.
Xuan Ziwen said indifferently, "My name is Xuan Ziwen. From today onward, I am your mentor. I don't care what your soul mentor class evaluation was at Shrek Academy. If you cannot meet my requirements, go study in the library by yourself and don't waste my time. My time is very precious. If you feel this is unfair, you can go find Director Lin right now and request a different mentor."
"Let's begin," Xu Zihuang replied with equal coldness. He was not the type to warm a cold face with his own. Moreover, for someone like Xuan Ziwen, demonstrating ability was far more effective than words.
Xuan Ziwen was momentarily stunned. A trace of surprise finally appeared in his previously indifferent eyes—Yu Tianhuang's reaction was completely unexpected.
But this was fine; it saved him time.
"Good. I see you're wearing a fifth-class soul mentor badge, so at Shrek, you should be a fifth-class soul mentor. You have half an hour to make me the best fifth-class core array assembly you can."
Normally, an average fifth-class soul mentor would take roughly this amount of time to successfully inscribe a fifth-class core array assembly.
Of course, this was according to the standards of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy.
Xu Zihuang said nothing and walked straight to the pile of rare metals placed in the center of the metal table. Under Xuan Ziwen's gaze, his fair hand reached forward. Oppressive black-purple lightning gathered in his palm and fell onto two pieces of differently colored rare metals.
One piece was deep purple throughout, somewhat resembling amethyst but with a much deeper hue.
This was a rare metal called Purple Thunder Crystal, found only in regions frequently struck by falling lightning.
The other piece was Red Flame Iron, a ruby-like crimson red with deep brown spots—impurities that were unavoidable in naturally formed rare metals.
When the black-purple lightning appeared, Xuan Ziwen was immediately startled.
A lightning-attribute martial soul?
But what shocked him even more came next.
Under the guidance of that black-purple lightning, two masses of flowing liquid metal separated from the Purple Thunder Crystal and Red Flame Iron. Deep purple and bright red shimmered together, crystal clear—clearly all impurities had been completely refined out.
Before Xuan Ziwen could think further, the two liquid metals with opposite attributes fused, forming a bewitching purple-red metal sphere that Xu Zihuang guided into water to cool.
Thunder Forging. This was the method Xu Zihuang used.
As his spiritual power and soul power cultivation had increased, his application of his second martial soul, the Purple Brilliant Thunder Dragon, had become far more refined and subtle.
Although he appeared relaxed on the surface, in reality, his nerves were taut. His extreme thunder attribute was simply too domineering; the slightest carelessness could destroy the Purple Thunder Crystal and Red Flame Iron from the inside.
Yet this still shocked Xuan Ziwen once again. This level of martial soul control was something even he, a Soul Douluo, knew he could not achieve.
Xu Zihuang held the cooled purple-red metal sphere in his left hand. At the same time, he took out a brilliant golden carving knife from his storage soul tool and sat down at the metal table to begin carving. It was a carving knife of very good quality—one that Fan Yu had given him and He Caitou, one each.
It couldn't compare to ranked carving knives, but it was sufficient for cutting the vast majority of rare metals.
Xu Zihuang pinched the metal sphere—no larger than a fingernail—with his left hand while his right hand moved the carving knife at an astonishing speed, as if he had no fear of making a mistake.
Driven by curiosity, Xuan Ziwen couldn't help but step closer to observe. When he saw the dense and complex patterns on the metal sphere, his gaze instantly froze.
At this moment, he could be certain: this youth from Shrek Academy absolutely possessed fifth-class soul mentor ability, no worse than any student he had ever taught. Moreover, he had some kind of special talent in inscribing core arrays.
As expected of Mingde Hall's chief researcher, Xuan Ziwen saw the key point with a single glance.
Xu Zihuang completed the inscription in just a little over fifteen minutes. The several core arrays inscribed on it indeed met Xuan Ziwen's difficulty requirements. But even with Xuan Ziwen's eyesight, for a moment, he couldn't quite understand the exact purpose of the core array assembly Yu Tianhuang had created.
As if to answer the doubt in Xuan Ziwen's mind, Xu Zihuang followed the same process and forged a piece of hard titanium gold into the shape of an arrow. He then embedded the spherical core array assembly into the tail of the arrow, even going so far as to use feathers from the thunder-attribute Thunder Raven and fire-attribute Red Flame Bird flight-type soul beasts to make tail feathers for decoration.
Yes—what Xu Zihuang had created was an arrow-shaped soul tool.
Although suspicion still filled Xuan Ziwen's eyes, his tone had softened considerably.
"Your core array meets my requirements. But what is the meaning of this soul tool?"
Xu Zihuang stood up, elegantly pinched the arrow between his right index and middle fingers, and gave a faint smile.
"Teacher Xuan, you will see."
As he spoke, he walked out from behind the experiment table to the soul tool testing area inside the laboratory.
Under Xuan Ziwen's puzzled gaze, Xu Zihuang took out a finely crafted silver bow from his storage soul tool, nocked the arrow onto the bowstring, slightly raised his chin, and drew the bow to full draw. He poured soul power into the tail feathers. The movement was both graceful and sharp.
"Shuuu—!"
In the next instant, the golden spiraling arrow turned into an afterimage and shot toward the two-meter-thick alloy wall two meters thick in the distance.
Crimson firelight and deep purple lightning spilled from the arrow's tail feathers, instantly enveloping the entire arrow and carrying incomparable might as it tore through the air. The space around the arrow seemed to distort under the scorching heat and violent power.
Immediately afterward, a hundred meters away, a sharp explosion rang out. Metal fragments flew in all directions as the entire arrowhead buried itself into the alloy wall.
The thunder and fire light lingering on the tail feathers continued to flicker.
Thunderfire Arrow!
Xuan Ziwen's eyes lit up like stars.
The way this soul tool was used truly exceeded his expectations—it was actually driven by an ordinary bow. But he had to admit that Yu Tianhuang's soul tool was full of creativity and had given him an enormous shock.
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